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Brynden Rivers
The white worm The last greenseer The Three-Eyed Crow Lord Rivers |born=175 AC, King's Landing |died= 252 AC, beyond the Wall (presumed) |title= Ser Master of Whisperers Hand of the King Lord Commander of the Night's Watch |allegiance= House Targaryen Night's Watch |culture= Valyrian |religion= |reign = |predecessor={Valarr Targaryen} (as Hand of the King) |successor= |heir= |crown= |father = {Aegon IV Targaryen} |mother = {Melissa Blackwood} |siblings={Mya Rivers} (sister) {Gwenys Rivers} (sister) {Daeron II Targaryen} (paternal half-brother) {Daenerys Targaryen} (paternal half-sister) {Alysanne} (paternal half-sister) {Lily} (paternal half-sister) {Willow} (paternal half-sister) {Rosey} (paternal half-sister) {Bellanora Otherys} (paternal half-sister) {Narha Otherys} (paternal half-sister) {Balerion Otherys} (paternal half-brother) {Aegor Rivers} (paternal half-brother) {Daemon Blackfyre} (paternal half-brother) {Shiera Seastar} (paternal half-sister) |lover={Shiera Seastar} |children= |books= The World of Ice & Fire (mentioned) The Sworn Sword (mentioned) The Mystery Knight (appears) A Feast for Crows (mentioned) A Dance with Dragons (appears)}} Ser Brynden Rivers, also called Bloodraven, was a bastard son of King Aegon IV Targaryen, and one of the 'Great Bastards'. Brynden was a Targaryen loyalist during the Blackfyre Rebellions. He served as the Hand of the King and Master of Whisperers to King Aerys I Targaryen and King Maekar I Targaryen. He was eventually sent to the Night's Watch by King Aegon V Targaryen, where he rose to the position of Lord Commander. After disappearing and being presumed dead in 252 AC, he was discovered by Bran Stark in 300 AC to be still alive as the Three-Eyed Crow. Character and appearance Bryden was not as tall as his half-brothers Aegor Rivers or Daemon Blackfyre, but was considered more cunning. He had milky-white skin and red eyes, along with a blood-red birthmark on his right cheek resembling a raven, hence his nickname of Bloodraven. Some regarded his appearance as being unsettling. After he lost an eye on the Redgrass Field, he usually refused to cover it up, adding to his fearsome aspect, but let his own hair cover it. He did however, wear an eyepatch during the Second Blackfyre Rebellion. It led to the famous riddle How many eyes does Bloodraven have? A thousand eyes and one. Brynden Rivers was regarded as cold-hearted, fearsome, dangerous and ruthless, with only his half-sister Shiera Seastar apparently able to warm his heart. Although an able swordsman, his preferred weapon was his weirwood longbow, with which he was a master. Altogether a hale and highly skilled warrior, Brynden's greatest asset was his brilliance and resourcefulness, and his seemingly uncanny ability to collect information. As the master of whisperers, he birthed a reputation for being a sorcerer and a spymaster, so much that he soon became one of the most feared men in Westeros, even more so than Prince Daemon Targaryen before him. Many at court, and even more throughout the Seven Kingdoms who only knew him by reputation, were terrified of him. Brynden was a completely practical man, unapologetically devoted to achieving stability in Westeros regardless of the means. He did not tolerate fools or sycophants, nor did he openly show emotion. His slaying of his half-brother Daemon Blackfyre shows that he sacrifices blood loyalty over personal loyalty since he killed Daemon and several of his sons in a single stroke and bore the name of kinslayer for the rest of his life, but he extinguished the leader of a dangerous and destructive rebellion in the process. As an albino, Brynden's skin was sensitive to sunlight, so he usually went cloaked and hooded, even in inclement weather. He dressed in black robes and dark armor. His personal sigil was a white dragon breathing red flame on a black field. He wielded the Valyrian steel blade Dark Sister in combat. The fate of the sword after his exile to the Wall remains unknown. Brynden was a great leader, commanding the Raven's Teeth for years and even rising to become Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. The song "A Thousand Eyes, and One" was written about Brynden. History Early life Brynden Rivers was the son of King Aegon IV Targaryen by his sixth mistress, Melissa Blackwood, born in 175 AC at King's Landing. Brynden had two older sisters named Mya Rivers and Gwenys Rivers, also fathered by Aegon IV. Brynden was an albino with a raven-shaped, blood-colored birthmark covering part of his face, hence his nickname of 'Bloodraven'. Melissa's elevation at court came at the expense of Aegon's prior mistress, Barba Bracken, and her bastard son Aegor Rivers. As a result of this and their Houses' natural enmity, Aegor and Brynden grew up as fierce rivals. When Melissa was replaced by Bethany Bracken, Melissa's popularity allowed Brydnen to remain at court. Along with all of the noble-born bastards of the King, Bloodraven was legitimized on his father's deathbed in 184 AC and later obtained Dark Sister, one of the two Targaryen Valyrian steel swords. The other, Blackfyre, was given to Daemon Blackfyre, one of Brynden's half-brothers. During the First Blackfyre Rebellion His rivalry with Aegor and, by extension, their mutual elder half-brother Daemon Blackfyre (who was close friends and allies with Aegor), made him a natural ally of Aegon IV's legitimate son and heir, Daeron II Targaryen. When Daemon Blackfyre became convinced that Daeron was the illegitimate bastard of Aegon's sister-wife Naerys by their brother, Aemon the Dragonknight, he claimed the Iron Throne as the eldest natural-born son of Aegon IV in 195 AC. Aegor, by now a great knight nicknamed 'Bittersteel', joined in Daemon's rebellion, whilst Bloodraven swore fealty to King Daeron II. Unlike the justice-obsessed Daeron and his 'honorable' warrior sons, Baelor and Maekar, Bloodraven was cold-blooded and ruthless. His unit of 300 elite archers carrying weirwood bows, the Raven's Teeth, became one of the most feared battlefield formations in Daeron's army, known for shooting into their own ranks it if meant achieving larger enemy casualties. At the Battle of the Redgrass Field he refused to face Daemon in single combat, instead brutally shooting him and then his twin sons, Aegon Blackfyre and Aemon Blackfyre, down with arrows from afar. Bittersteel cut out Bloodraven's left eye in a fury before being forced to flee due to the arrival of reinforcements. The rebellion was crushed and Bloodraven's loyalty proven. Bittersteel fled to the Free Cities and founded a mercenary company called the Golden Company, which swore an oath to destroy the Targaryens wherever they could find them. After the war, Brynden advocated for a hard line against the Blackfyre rebels. Hand of the King Bloodraven became the Hand of the King and appointed as Master of Whisperers to his half-nephew King Aerys I Targaryen after Daeron's death in the Great Spring Sickness of 209 AC. Seeing the corpses pile up in the streets of King's Landing during the sickness, Brynden ordered pyromancers to burn them in the Dragonpit, and the light of the wildfire could be seen throughout the night. Some people alleged that Brynden and his lover, his half-sister Shiera Seastar, used sorcery to uncover secrets. In 211 AC, Otho Bracken of House Bracken, was intended to succeed as lord of Stone Hedge. Many Blackwoods did not want to see the man doing so. People believed that Brydnen would not hear the complaints of his Blackwood kin despite being half-Blackwood himself. Septon Sefton believed that if Brynden intervened, it would be in support to bring Otho down. Later that year, Lord Dagon Greyjoy raided the western coast. By 212 AC, Lord Beron Stark had called his banners to repulse the ironborn from the Stony Shore, while House Lannister was building ships to strike at the Iron Islands. During all of this Brynden kept his eye on Tyrosh, where his half-brother Aegor Rivers remained with the surviving children of Daemon Blackfyre in exile. Victarion Greyjoy recalls that "even Dagon could not defeat the dragons", implying that the Targaryens intervened. Second Blackfyre Rebellion During the wedding tourney at Whitewalls in 212 AC, Ser Maynard Plumm defended Brynden's actions as Hand to Ser Kyle the Cat. Through his informants, including a Vyrwel man-at-arms and a troupe of comic dwarfs, Brynden was aware of a plot at Whitewalls to put Daemon II Blackfyre forward as the legitimate Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Brynden marched on the tourney with three hundred Raven's Teeth, three brothers of the Kingsguard, five hundred other knights, and five thousand infantry drawn from the crownlands and the riverlands. Alarmed by the amount of support Brynden had, Daemon tried to rally the people at the tourney to fight with him, though lacked any reals support. Daemon then challenged the Hand to single combat, but Brynden refused and immediately arrested Daemon, thus ending the Second Blackfyre Rebellion before it even began. Brynden's actions were witnessed by Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg. Daemon was kept in captivity rather than executed with the other rebel leaders, ensuring that Aegor Rivers could not name Daemon's younger brother Haegon as the new lord to House Blackfyre. after the second Blackfyre rebellion.]] Third Blackfyre Rebellion In the aftermath of the Third Blackfyre Rebellion, Brynden demanded that the prisoner Aegor Rivers should be put to death, but King Aerys I Targaryen decided to send Aegor to the Night's Watch instead. Aegor escaped back to Essos when his ship was intercepted en route to Eastwatch, leaving Brynden disgruntled. Great Council of 233 AC Brynden continued as Hand for Aerys's successor, his brother Maekar I, in 221 AC. After Maekar's death in 233 AC, Brynden, as the Hand of the King, called a Great Council in King's Landing to discuss the issue of succession. Although he was legitimized and half-Targaryen himself, Brynden did not put forth a claim to the succession. Aenys Blackfyre, son of Haegon Blackfyre, wished to peacefully participate in the Great Council, and Brynden offered him safe conduct to King's Landing from Tyrosh. When Aenys arrived in the King's Landing he was arrested by the gold cloaks and then beheaded in the Red Keep. The Great Council chose Maekar's son to succeed as King Aegon V Targaryen, whose first act as king was to arrest Brynden for the murder of Aenys. Brynden rebuked that he had sacrificed his honor for the good of the realm, but Aegon refused to set Brynden free. Aegon offered Brynden the option to join the Night's Watch as an alternative, which he accepted. Night's Watch Brynden was escorted to the Wall by Duncan the Tall, lord commander of the Kingsguard, and was accompanied by his grandnephew Aemon Targaryen, and allegedly took Dark Sister with him, though it seems unlikely that Aegon V would willingly let Brynden take it. Regardless, there he became one of the more renowned Lords Commander of the Night's Watch, gaining the position in 239 AC. However, he disappeared while beyond the wall in 252 AC. The Three-Eyed Crow At some point before 300 AC, Brynden became the Three-Eyed Crow, becoming attached to a weirwood tree which in turn grew into his body. In 300 AC, Bran Stark, Jojen Reed, Meera Reed and Hodor reach Brynden with the assistance of Coldhands. The Three-Eyed Crow informs Bran that his name was once called Lord Brynden. Brynden has since become near-skeletal, at a hundred and twenty-five years old, with the weirwood tree growing out of his missing eye. Bran is heartbroken that Brynden cannot heal his crippled legs, but Brynden assures him that he'll teach him how to fly instead. Brynden teaches Bran about greenseeing and skinchanging. Later, he decides to have Bran eat weirwood paste in order to awaken his greenseer gifts. taking his training to the next step with assistance from Leaf in order to awaken Bran's greenseer gifts. When Bran sees his father, Eddard, through Winterfell's heart tree, Brynden tells Bran that he is haunted by his own ghosts, consisting of a brother that he loved, a brother that he hated, and a woman that he desired, but he knows from experience that one cannot change the past. See also * Three-Eyed Crow/Theories References Category:Historical characters Category:Deceased characters Category:House Targaryen Category:Great Bastards Category:Night's Watch Category:Lord Commander of the Night's Watch Category:Bastards Category:Characters Category:Characters from the Riverlands Category:Hand of the King Category:Master of Whisperers